Historical Political Events forDecember 25

American forces under George Washington cross the ice-strewn Delaware River in a surprise raid on Christmas night, and defeat a corps of British Hessian mercenaries at the Battle of Trenton. [My ancestor, John Felkins was there.]

1831

Louisiana and Arkansas are first states to observe Christmas as holiday.

Khmer Rouge regime toppled from power, as Phnom Penh falls to invading Vietnamese forces. (Khmer Rouge forces retreat west, and set up base camps on the Thai border and in the Cardamon mountains to continue resistance against the Vietnamese.)

In the 4th century, the Church officially set Christmas on December 25, a date "chosen not for religious reasons but simply because it happened to mark the approximate arrival of the winter solstice, an event that was celebrated long before the advent of Christianity". . .From the beginning, the Church’s hold over Christmas was (and remains still) rather tenuous. There were always people for whom Christmas was a time of pious devotion rather than carnival, but such people were always in the minority. It may not be going too far to say that Christmas has always been an extremely difficult holiday to Christianize.
— Stephen Nissenbaum, The Battle for Christmas, 1996